A Dangerous Form Of Protectionism

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 10:16am

To start: I'm a globalist, internationalist sustainable fair trader I believe it is one way to bring peace.

The noises coming out of America's right wing.

America deserves protecting from foreigners.

-To protect America we must protect the wealthy from this new protectionism by giving them the wealth of the nation via tax-cuts and the elimination of the estate-tax.
We have already undermined for decades worker rights and reduced the unions to a side-show.
-With AI and further automation on the way, our productivity is assured hence the profits will increase.
-We will fan the flames of "identity politics" until a racial conflagration occurs whilst at the same time further militarization of the police continues unabated. Keep them blaming each other and the prison industrial complex well fed.
-We will keep the population as indebted as feasibly possible, too frightened to revolt.
- Ignorance is strength will be the guiding light that we will follow; anything that hinders profit can be safely denied.
-The rest of the world wishes us only harm, keeping fanning the flames of fear and war.

This is the road to authoritarianism/fascism.

The whole idea of taxes in a democracy should be for the betterment of everyone. Education, Health Care and the ability to earn a decent living should be rights, not privileges.

-How many in the duopoly have told us we cannot afford universal free education and healthcare?

-How many in the duopoly have voted us right into the next war be it over, drugs, terrorism or straight up invasion and occupation? The automation of war is not far away.

-How many in the duopoly have tried to hide and if not able to hide them pardoned America's war crimes?

- How many of the duopoly enabled and fed the Prison Industrial Complex?

-How many of the duopoly have supported the Military Industrial complex?

The arguments of left and right of centre have become irrelevant since the left is not represented at all, by all means, keep digging up old and new wedge issues to differentiate, flog the dead horse of "least bad" until it dies a well-earned death.

There is a choice.

Either abandon the joys of division and hate or continue them until completed.

Trump is the poster child of the direction chosen by Americans to date.

The only things coming out of Democrats today to fight the hate of the right is hate of the right, you cant win, they are better at it than you are.

Hope and change was a winner, until it was abandoned for more of the same, who is willing to swallow that bullshit a second time?

Both Democrats and Republicans have been tarnished with government for the few at the expense of the many, if you cant grasp that then you are part of the problem. The left has repeated this for decades without the need for hate and division to justify our reassoning, we have been comletely and utterly ignored in the partisan duopoly.

It is time for a change before the fall, although sadly I think the fall is a given before a change is possible.

Tags:

A Muse

Vote

Comments

Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 10:42am

Between the Conservatives (Dems) and Fascists (Repigs)

It's near impossible for the left in this country to have a say. Oh sure, the so-called 'alt' right has plenty of say because they repeat the same fuckin' talking points since they were called 'Race Realists' and 'Mens Rights Activists' while acting as useful fodder for the capitalist machine.

—

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 11:26am

HOPE laughter in California

Is there an echo out here? Sure need a Labor or Independent party, or some analogous system, a functioning one that is not tainted with duopoly characters. Thanks.
Divide in California's GOP on display at convention: 'We’re not offering anything hopeful'

“Munger didn’t rescue the GOP. He bought the party, and he’s corrupted it by doling out money to the most Democrat-like candidates and causes,” said former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a tea party favorite whom Munger opposed in two campaigns.

Donnelly and Gesicki got into a heated argument about Munger at a hotel bar Friday. It was one of several public spats over the weekend, leading GOP strategist Alex Burrola to compare the convention to the "Red Wedding" scene in "Game of Thrones" — a celebration that ends in a massacre.

"I've seen a lot of different kinds of ideological movements and tug of wars come and go," Burrola said. "I've never seen something this ugly, and frankly to me, repulsive. It's really disheartening because there is so much potential and people do want another choice in California aside from Democrats. But what are Republicans offering? We're not offering anything hopeful. We're just offering ugliness."

---
Every time I read Catalonia now, I see California. hmph
This is what Steve Bannon told the California Republican Party convention

California is to Donald Trump as South Carolina was to Andrew Jackson. Back in the 1830s the folks in South Carolina didn't like the fact that Jackson, a populist, and Congress had put on tariffs, federal tariffs, on product. And they decided that in South Carolina they weren't going to have those tariffs, and they were independent and they could do what they want. They could choose what federal laws they wanted to have and not have.

And General Jackson said that if they can pick and choose what laws they want, eventually they are going to split off and try to try to form a Southern Confederacy, said this like in 1832. So Jackson passed another law and powered the U.S. Army. He was going to send the Army into South Carolina. And he told somebody, “And if I have to, I'm going to hang John C. Calhoun from a lamppost, but we are going to enforce federal law.”

You've nullified the sanctuary cities law in this state. In fact, you are a sanctuary state. And trust me, if you do not roll this back — and I'm talking about people in this room — 10 or 15 years from now the folks in Silicon Valley and the progressive left in this state are going to try to secede from the union.

The link is to the whole transcript. I think it is a good speech, unfortunately. Dangerous guy with words.

good luck

Submitted by earthling1 on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 11:41am

We have to change the perception

of our government as a union of people, not just states.
"The whole idea of taxes in a democracy should be for the betterment of everyone. Education, Health Care and the ability to earn a decent living should be rights, not privileges."
We are a Union of American States. And people.
The taxes we pay are the same thing as dues. The revenue is used to keep our union funded and able to provide mutual benefit to the union members.
Otherwise, why have a union at all? Unionism is the elixir to divide and conquer.
United we stand.
America needs to be reinvented as a union of people, not corporations.
IMHO.
Thanks for the essay.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by GreyWolf on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:50pm

the 'Union of American States"

@earthling1 so simple, so obvious, i'm gonna use that. thanks.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 11:56am

Our current condition is boiled down

beautifully in this essay, LF. I feel empowered with the correct words to speak those thoughts swirling around in my head.

Many people I engage with feel powerless - I tell them what they are doing to us, economically. I try and explain what the duopoly is up to - never in our favor.

Your essay needs to be read far and wide.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:01pm

All we can do is look to pick up the pieces...

Because Humpty ain't getting back together again after this one.

The question is how long they will hold on in an attempt to prop up a system that no longer works.

I think the answer is "As long as people have no other choice", and they're doing everything they can to pretend there is none. Every message shouted from every screen and every pundit agrees that we must accept what is NOW.

That can't last forever, and I think they know it, hence the ramping up and the acceleration of the strip mining of all infrastructure and resources..

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by Snode on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:06pm

Identity politics scares me the most

because eventually there will be a "white identity". If every group is going to stake out their position by identity, white will become one. The supremacists want to force, and shape, that choice and define a "white identity". Today it seems a given that that racism IS the white identity to many, and it's impossible to deny, because of privilege.

White privilege is the lack of rights for POC, that whites have and take for granted. So, being white is being inherently racist, no matter what you think or feel, even if you just got off a plane and became a citizen. You automatically have those enhanced rights. If you're a white male you're inherently sexist, too. You can't help it, you're the Marie Antoinette of the people with all the rights, cluelessly wondering why people have to starve when there is plenty of cake to eat, they just need to look in the cupboard like I do. Would making Marie feel terrible for being herself, shaming her for being unaware, solve anything? Would she feel forced to defend herself, find a group that doesn't see her as an enemy, more than finding a solution to hunger? More than fighting for those rights for all? Where will that identity find a home?

In some ways unions had their own "economic identity" politics, and the unions lost when they stood by as other workers lost ground. Then the weaker unions fell. Then few non union workers trusted unions, and union bosses sided with the "hold you nose candidates". So many people distrust unions today, even some who belong to one. It can't be only the strong survive anymore.

We need to somehow stand together, or we'll all be on our knees. I tried to search out how the Left is defined today, and much I found recently equates it with Communism. So, all our ideas are tied to a system beaten by capitalism, faintly traitorous and deemed totally unworkable. I almost think the policies both parties are pursuing were agreed upon, because the one thing they both fear is the rise of the left. As long as we're divided, we're dead.

Submitted by The Aspie Corner on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:27pm

White Christian identity has been around since the 80s.

@Snode It was a huge factor in the religious right homeschool movement back in those days.

Now? Well....

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVfmvN3H4o]

because eventually there will be a "white identity". If every group is going to stake out their position by identity, white will become one. The supremacists want to force, and shape, that choice and define a "white identity". Today it seems a given that that racism IS the white identity to many, and it's impossible to deny, because of privilege. White privilege is the lack of rights for POC, that whites have and take for granted. So, being white is being inherently racist, no matter what you think or feel, even if you just got off a plane and became a citizen. You automatically have those enhanced rights. If you're a white male you're inherently sexist, too. You can't help it, you're the Marie Antoinette of the people with all the rights, cluelessly wondering why people have to starve when there is plenty of cake to eat, they just need to look in the cupboard like I do. Would making Marie feel terrible for being herself, shaming her for being unaware, solve anything? Would she feel forced to defend herself, find a group that doesn't see her as an enemy, more than finding a solution to hunger? More than fighting for those rights for all? Where will that identity find a home? In some ways unions had their own "economic identity" politics, and the unions lost when they stood by as other workers lost ground. Then the weaker unions fell. Then few non union workers trusted unions, and union bosses sided with the "hold you nose candidates". So many people distrust unions today, even some who belong to one. It can't be only the strong survive anymore. We need to somehow stand together, or we'll all be on our knees. I tried to search out how the Left is defined today, and much I found recently equates it with Communism. So, all our ideas are tied to a system beaten by capitalism, faintly traitorous and deemed totally unworkable. I almost think the policies both parties are pursuing were agreed upon, because the one thing they both fear is the rise of the left. As long as we're divided, we're dead.

—

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Submitted by earthling1 on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 5:24pm

This was the point of my comment above.

@Snode
"So many people distrust unions today, even some who belong to one. It can't be only the strong survive anymore."
Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a union. All dues paying corporate union members.
The Screen Actors Guild, the American Medical Association, the NFL Players Association, even the American Automobile Dealers Association, I could go on and on, are all unions. With dues paying members that expect results from those they democratically elect to run those respective unions.
One union is singled out by all the rest for destruction, the Labor Union.
This is what has to change.
All Americans have to come to realize that we live in a union. And destroying one union out of all of them is un-American.
IMHO.

because eventually there will be a "white identity". If every group is going to stake out their position by identity, white will become one. The supremacists want to force, and shape, that choice and define a "white identity". Today it seems a given that that racism IS the white identity to many, and it's impossible to deny, because of privilege. White privilege is the lack of rights for POC, that whites have and take for granted. So, being white is being inherently racist, no matter what you think or feel, even if you just got off a plane and became a citizen. You automatically have those enhanced rights. If you're a white male you're inherently sexist, too. You can't help it, you're the Marie Antoinette of the people with all the rights, cluelessly wondering why people have to starve when there is plenty of cake to eat, they just need to look in the cupboard like I do. Would making Marie feel terrible for being herself, shaming her for being unaware, solve anything? Would she feel forced to defend herself, find a group that doesn't see her as an enemy, more than finding a solution to hunger? More than fighting for those rights for all? Where will that identity find a home? In some ways unions had their own "economic identity" politics, and the unions lost when they stood by as other workers lost ground. Then the weaker unions fell. Then few non union workers trusted unions, and union bosses sided with the "hold you nose candidates". So many people distrust unions today, even some who belong to one. It can't be only the strong survive anymore. We need to somehow stand together, or we'll all be on our knees. I tried to search out how the Left is defined today, and much I found recently equates it with Communism. So, all our ideas are tied to a system beaten by capitalism, faintly traitorous and deemed totally unworkable. I almost think the policies both parties are pursuing were agreed upon, because the one thing they both fear is the rise of the left. As long as we're divided, we're dead.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 2:26pm

@earthling1

@earthling1

Seems to be the corrupt unions, headed by those who ignore their members to support corporate objectives - such as supporting the Clintons over Bernie in the Dem nomination - who are permitted to survive...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 2:31pm

@earthling1

@earthling1

And another timed-out, hope this won't dupe but nothing's loading right now, drat it!

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 1:48pm

@Snode

@Snode

You've nailed it: everything is designed to further divide the people as people.

These are both Corporate Party components and the way in which the masks now so carelessly worn over the two faces of this, once-pretending to offer 'voter choice' of (privately-selected) candidates in a (privately-selected) trade-off, is shedding to show the pathologically destructive greed beneath both.

It's also - and importantly - the corruption behind the 'political' parties, these both fronting in their interests by bleeding the American people and the world to feed their insatiable lust for all of the power and wealth on Earth, that must be eliminated from policy and politics...

We know all this - and many more are becoming aware of the propaganda machine of the corporate media, yet somehow still falling for some...

because eventually there will be a "white identity". If every group is going to stake out their position by identity, white will become one. The supremacists want to force, and shape, that choice and define a "white identity". Today it seems a given that that racism IS the white identity to many, and it's impossible to deny, because of privilege. White privilege is the lack of rights for POC, that whites have and take for granted. So, being white is being inherently racist, no matter what you think or feel, even if you just got off a plane and became a citizen. You automatically have those enhanced rights. If you're a white male you're inherently sexist, too. You can't help it, you're the Marie Antoinette of the people with all the rights, cluelessly wondering why people have to starve when there is plenty of cake to eat, they just need to look in the cupboard like I do. Would making Marie feel terrible for being herself, shaming her for being unaware, solve anything? Would she feel forced to defend herself, find a group that doesn't see her as an enemy, more than finding a solution to hunger? More than fighting for those rights for all? Where will that identity find a home? In some ways unions had their own "economic identity" politics, and the unions lost when they stood by as other workers lost ground. Then the weaker unions fell. Then few non union workers trusted unions, and union bosses sided with the "hold you nose candidates". So many people distrust unions today, even some who belong to one. It can't be only the strong survive anymore. We need to somehow stand together, or we'll all be on our knees. I tried to search out how the Left is defined today, and much I found recently equates it with Communism. So, all our ideas are tied to a system beaten by capitalism, faintly traitorous and deemed totally unworkable. I almost think the policies both parties are pursuing were agreed upon, because the one thing they both fear is the rise of the left. As long as we're divided, we're dead.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by dervish on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:37pm

Change will never happen before a fall

Both parties are indelibly welded to the various corruption and graft strategies that they've concocted, and they will never stop, nor will they allow outside competition. It's a Solidarnosc moment here, the dominant system has failed, and it must be completely eviscerated and replaced with something else.

—

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:44pm

Neoliberalism is bipartisan

whenever I hear a bipartisan bill or bipartisanship
for this or that I shit my pants as we're getting
fucked again.

As far as authoritarian/fascism we are already there.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/10/gaius-publius-defining-neolibera...

The Role of Government in a Neoliberal World

Since for neoliberals, the “market” is the source of all that is good in human interaction, non-interference in “the market” is rule one for government.

Over time that has changed, however, as winners have grown more successful and their control of government more absolute. The proper role of government in today’s neoliberal regime is not merely to allowthe market to operate for the benefit of wealth-holders; it’s to make sure the market operates for the benefit of wealth-holders.

In other words, the role of government is to intervene in the market on behalf of wealth-holders, or, as I put it more colloquially, to proactively enrich the rich. The interview with Professor Mirowski, as I noted above, makes that same point, but from an academic standpoint.

From this it should be also clear that until we free ourselves of rule by neoliberals and the pain and misery they create, we’ll always be victims to the predatory giants — the very very wealthy and the corporations they use as power-extenders — those, in other words, who want merely to own everything else in the world.

This means we need to free ourselves from neoliberals in both parties, not just the ones in current seats of power. But that idea seems to have been excised from most discussions these days. Fair warning though. If the Age of Trump ends with the Restoration of Mainstream Democrats, we’ll have won almost nothing at all.

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by GreyWolf on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:56pm

perfect sig

@ggersh Oh my god, your sig is so awesome (you have to say awesome with a rising falsetto voice while pretending you're a drag-queen;)

Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:36pm

Ala Ru Paul

@GreyWolf @GreyWolf

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 2:09pm

the law of the jungle

@ggersh

Since for neoliberals, the “market” is the source of all that is good in human interaction, non-interference in “the market” is rule one for government.

In other words, the law of the jungle. The strongest rule, all else drool.

Unregulated "free" markets do not and cannot exist.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by MichaelSF on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 8:24pm

I don't think so

@thanatokephaloides @thanatokephaloides

non-interference in “the market” is rule one for government.

Because neo-liberals are quite happy to have government interfere with the market when it is for the benefit of those in control. That's one of the interesting things about "free" marketers, they want their freedom to steal/loot from everyone else protected by the government.

Submitted by k9disc on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 10:49pm

They Demand Preferential Treatment, After All, They've "Earned"

it, right?

Bail me out or else.

Give me a good law that helps my business.

Screw the people and help me.
@MichaelSF

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by edg on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:01pm

Globalism. Yuck.

Globalism is just another way for the global elite to render the working woman into further misery and poverty. The flaw in globalism for any thinking person is that it pulls down workers in established industrial nations instead of pulling up workers in developing nations.

If your globalism consisted of strong unions, environmental and worker protections, and Western-level wages, I'd be all for it. But it does not and cannot because it is designed by and for the benefit of owners, not workers.

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:25pm

Globalism as it is used by "free traders" I'll agree

@edg I use globalism as in "one world".

What you do in one place has repercussions in another, if you do good then chances are the repercussions will be favourable.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:59pm

For Example

@LaFeminista
America could theoretically use our military budget to feed and provide clean water to the planet (including Detroit). If you (LaFeminista) had substituted the word wisdom for knowledge, perhaps your intent would have been clearer.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by k9disc on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 8:02pm

You Want Peace and Justice in the ME? Desalinate It.

Make water there, not war.
@Meteor Man

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by dervish on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:26pm

Yep, and globalism has also meant a loss

@edg of sovereignty for many nations, with a foreign elite making crucial decisions instead of the domestic citizenry.

—

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 5:02pm

@dervish

@dervish

Yep, and globalism has also meant a loss

of sovereignty for many nations, with a foreign elite making crucial decisions instead of the domestic citizenry.

The corporate model. Only a local government, aware of and concerned with local conditions, provides any hope of accountability and concern for serving the public interest. Any hope of democracy...

Colonies have been ruled by distant governments and fought for freedom or for full inclusion with rights often denied them otherwise.

Now, as in the EU, this involves distant and ruthless financial interests and other self-serving corporations and billionaires, which tend to see the colonies as properties, as trading blocs, with fungible workers either useful or disposable and public property as a source of further profiteering.

Similar problems as are suffered by local businesses bought up - if not simply driven out of business - by large corporations, and by the local communities, as money drains out of their area to often be offshored as 'excess profit' and as monopolies are established, variety of choice diminishes and ever-increasing profits are sought by draining them from the businesses, public tax revenues and the community itself.

The giant 'too-big-to-regulate' corporate model is not sustainable in any way, shape or form, even in business, certainly not in determining public policy, definitely not in reality.

Mutually beneficial Fair Trade deals and easier access between countries as desired by the various publics can be worked out without the interference of powerful self-interests, as they cannot be under what are presented as 'trade deals' or 'trade unions' - in actuality, corporate coups - wishing to homogenize cultures and to limit, poison and drain economies, ecologies and citizen lives to suit themselves and their destructive business model.

Why would anyone wish to surrender their country's sovereignty and their own self-determination, domestic law and democracy to ruthless outside self-interests? I'll never understand...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:56pm

I'm a globalist... in theory

@edg

Sure, I desire the "one big happy family" presented in the Star Trek universe where we all band together. But I am skeptical of our human ability to have a leader/follower relationship that isn't totally corrupt when you scale to that size. From an economic standpoint, a healthy sense of nationalism serves as a firewall to impede the tentacles of the vampire squid. Until we find some other way to control the insanity that is wealth accumulation, I'm totally in favor of breaking up the world.

—

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:24pm

One must have an ideal before you compromise.

@SnappleBC For some it's exclusion and tribalism, e.g. MAGA

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:30pm

I'm glad some people got as far as the sixth word it made

@edg the rest so worthwhile.

Submitted by edg on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 12:21pm

That was nasty and uncalled for.

@LaFeminista

I did read the whole thing. Even though it was formatted poorly, with dashes instead of bullets, and with some sections having line spacing between dashed items while others did not, and all leavened with a bunch of short, disconnected single-sentence paragraphs.

I enjoy your essays but this was not your best work.

Submitted by Mike Taylor on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 1:41pm

Globalization and peace.

Since capital is fungible, our trade deficits with China are bankrolling North Korea. The Mid-East would still be throwing rocks at each other if it weren't for the virtual century of US buying Mid-East oil and our efforts to provide 'stability in the region'.
Globalism is a lot of things, but its not a promoter of peace. It has instead financed our enemies to a point more dangerous than any goodwill from globalization can cancel out.

—

Mike Taylor

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 3:26pm

As I said before thats globalism defined by capitalism

@Mike Taylor The spread of knowledge and interchange is totally different, it's not all about the money honey.

Submitted by k9disc on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:57pm

I Shuddered When I Heard That Word as Well.

I call that corporate globalization, or at least used to, but I think the capitalist definition and state of the planet have made the word without the "corporate" moniker a bit harder to stomach.

I feel you, LF. Good piece.

@LaFeminista

—

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Submitted by Mike Taylor on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:05pm

The spread of knowledge and interchange.

As in the spread of nuclear technology, nukes in Pakistan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and other countries that should never have them?

—

Mike Taylor

Submitted by Meteor Man on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 4:54pm

Knowledge Can Be Good

@Mike Taylor
Maybe I'm reading too much negativity into the comments, but knowledge has some advantages over ignorance.

Not to get all biblical, but money itself can be used for beneficial purposes. Love of money is the root of all evil and the Achilles Heel of capitalism. When Eve took a bite of the apple, she was condemned with the knowledge of good and evil.

Call me Captain Obvious, if you wish, but the problem with contemporary knowledge is that our technological expertise has far outstripped our sociological/behavioral expertise.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 6:43pm

These two issues

-We will fan the flames of "identity politics" until a racial conflagration occurs whilst at the same time further militarization of the police continues unabated. Keep them blaming each other and the prison industrial complex well fed.

What happening now with regards to public protests should be a wake up call for everyone in this country.
Some states are passing legislation that could make any type of protests illegal and if people are convicted of felony rioting, they face up to 75 years in prison for it. This is happening already in DC after the inauguration protests where some windows got broken. How many windows? SIX.
We have seen what has been happening at protests where police just kettles everyone who is in the area of any violence. They then are hauled off to jail where they stay in unconstitutional conditions and for illegal lengths of time.
Read this and weep for what we have allowed to happen.

HUNDREDS FACE CONSPIRACY CHARGES FOR ACTIONS OF A FEW DURING INAUGURATION DAY PROTESTS
The Intercept has another article there about the DAPL protests. It's a two part investigation into what happened during the protests. They also did an incredible 7 part series on TigerSwan, the mercenary company that ran the DAPL security.

-We will also keep the population too indebted as feasibly possible, to frightened to revolt.

Great point. But it's not only this. We saw how many people cheered police breaking up the OWS, BLM and DAPL protests just because of who the people involved in them.
They told the OWS protesters to get jobs. The BLM protesters to just quit committing crimes, running from police and to not reach for their guns. The DAPL protesters to stop driving their cars, using anything made out of plastic and that pipelines are safer than transporting oil by trains or trucks. No thoughts about keeping the oil in the ground and going with solar energy for homes and cars.

I have no idea how to get people to see things differently and to realize that we need to quit fighting each other and start focusing on what the PTB are doing to us.

Republicans are on the war path against us. Trying to take millions of people's insurance away from us, gutting social programs, Medicaid and Medicare just so they can give corporations and rich people tax cuts. They have declared war on everyone who isn't in the 1%, and again, too fucking many people are cheering them on.

Our time to fight back might have already passed, but we need to at least try. The question is how.
Plus we need people to stop worshipping the military and realize that it's not helping defend people in other countries, but it is actually killing them.

Submitted by Mike Taylor on Sat, 10/28/2017 - 7:33pm

Public division.

"we need to quit fighting each other and start focusing on what the PTB are doing to us.".
Exactly.
What I think is causing the most public division is that some groups are being oppressed more than others.
The TPTB can't oppress all groups equally.
Applying an equal level of oppression to all groups would generate public unity against the TPTB.
For their own protection, the TPTB must facilitate the oppression of some groups over others, and in different ways than others, making the system reward some groups more than others, at the same time allowing a majority of people to be content with the way it is, to prevent public unity against the TPTB.
They would rather have all groups blaming each other than to have them blame the institutional oppression that was created, facilitated and financed by the TPTB.

—

Mike Taylor

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 10/29/2017 - 1:01pm

Fabulous essay! If I may

Fabulous essay! If I may offer one small correction, though?

...This is ... authoritarianism/fascism. ...

It is already there, and has been for some time.

It's just easier seeing it from outside; the over-all incremental implementation - apart from 9/11, of course, the excuse for the 'shock and awe' massive conditioning of the American population to accept the arbitrary and permanent elimination of their rights and the hastening of the global hostile military/corporate take-over in process, this predominately funded on the backs - and risk to life and limb of those starved into joining the military - of the American taxpayer - exactly as many among the German population failed to understand when this happened to their country prior, not having the benefit of their own example as we now do.

But Holocaust survivors were touring, giving speeches, and have been warning of the all-to-familiar fascist symptoms arising ever since Bush-2...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by bikingforkarma on Thu, 03/22/2018 - 9:23am

you missed one part

the costs of ramping up mass incarceration almost bankrupted california. they waved the white flag and started some modest reform. most red states can't even afford the prisons they have.

this will mean, in the next economic recession, that rich people will ahve to pay more taxes to fund prisons. will they?

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did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war